The War On The War On Drugs

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All Rise...

In this review, Judge Ian Visser fights "The War on the War on the War against Bad Documentaries." With your help, we all win.

The Charge

Is the American "war on drugs" an attempt to protect our youth and
restrict the spread of violence in our country? Or is it a method of expanding
government power and control over a large segment of the population who are just
looking to get high and chill out for a while?

The Case

There has been a steady increase in recent years of the "one-sided"
documentary. These films, often from the fringes of the political spectrum, are
only interested in providing one side of an argument, rather than presenting a
balanced look at a person or issue. Michael Moore is probably the best-known
example of this kind of filmmaker; his Fahrenheit 9/11 had little interest in
examining any other view of the Iraq War and the subsequent "war on
terror" than that held by its creator. Other recent examples have included
Why we Fight, This Film is Not Yet Rated, and Bush's Brain. Some of these are excellent
films, but they do not attempt to present balanced viewpoints on an issue. They
have a point already in mind, and assemble their evidence in an attempt to
substantiate it.

The difficulty with such efforts is that they rarely appeal to anyone not
holding the same opinion. My recent review of The Bush Crimes Commission
Hearings is a perfect example; the movie is so bias and slanted (I mean,
check out the title) that nobody with an opposing or contradictory position is
ever going to be swayed by the movie, assuming they even bother to watch it. As
a result, such efforts spend their entire time preaching to the choir, not to
new candidates with the potential for conversion. The War on the War on
Drugs, however, doesn't merely preach to the choir; it runs out of the
church and beats up anyone who belongs to a different faith.

The War on the War on Drugs presents various segments and skits
designed to convince you that the current battle against the pervasion of drugs
in our society is misguided, wasteful, and threatening to our civil rights. The
tone here is a mocking one; the film takes the freak-out movies of the 1930s,
the anti-reefer scare-films of the 1950s, and the various public service
announcements created by the government and re-makes them as sarcastic,
tongue-in-cheek commentaries on the drug war. The suggestion here is that if we
permitted the legalization of narcotics, we would have far more resources
available to fight real crime, and we could stop imprisoning harmless drug users
who only wish to get high and mellow out.

That certainly sounds like the basis for an investigation into the current
drug policy in America. There are many facets of the drug war that result in the
abuse of power and waste valuable resources. But The War on the War on
Drugs doesn't want to make this kind of movie. Rather, it claims that drugs
are awesome, mind-expanding mana from heaven. They are harmless, cool, and allow
you to escape the controlling prison that society is trying to shove you into.
Take drugs and you can stick it to the Man, end war, and make the world a better
place. And if you don't take, like, or support drugs? Well, you're an asshole,
for starters. You are also a fascist, a narrow-minded tool of the government,
and an all-around uptight dude who is bumming it out for the rest of the
peaceful, freedom-loving population that just wants to get freaky.

Yes, the battle lines drawn in The War on the War on Drugs are that
black and white. Pick a side, dude, 'cause if you ain't down with us, you're
down with them. There's nothing in this film that approaches anything
like a balanced argument, only a sharp and piercing screed against not just the
current drug policy, but and drug policy. If the makers of The War on
the War on Drugs had their way, drugs would be available at the local 7-11,
at drive-thorough stalls, and handed out on Halloween instead of candy. Even
more astonishing, the film doesn't even attempt to distinguish between
"softer" forms of drugs, such as marijuana and hashish, and
"hard" drugs like heroin and cocaine during the course of its
arguments. As far as this effort is concerned, drugs are drugs, and drugs are
good. End of story.

The War on the War on Drugs ultimately fails because it simply isn't
any good. It makes its point in the first five minutes of the film, and then
spends the next seventy minutes repeating it over and over again. The skits are
cheaply made, painfully obvious, and equal to anything a ninth-grader with a
video camera could come up with. Most of the arguments are spurious, at best.
Founding father George Washington grew weed, so we should all be allowed to as
well. Timothy McVeigh wasn't on drugs when he blew up the Federal
Building in Oklahoma, so drugs must therefore be good. Funds spent on anti-drug
ads have meant that we could have saved the environment by now, if only we
didn't waste money telling our kids that drugs are bad. Michael Bolton doesn't
take drugs, and his music sucks, so we should all take drugs to prevent awful
music.

The most galling element of this whole thing is the inability of director
Cevin Soling to see the holes in his own arguments. He slanders government
anti-drug messages as propaganda, and then proceeds to take all of the same
elements he critiques and apply them back on his own target. And as for
overthrowing the "oppressive regime currently running America," how is
that supposed to happen when the entire population is in their basements
watching lava lamps and giggling at Family Guy re-reruns? Wouldn't a
stoned and self-pacified population be more likely to be abused and
manipulated by a government interested in destroying individual rights than a
sober one?

There is certainly room for debate on issues such as legalization,
decriminalization, or free-needle exchanges, but a film like this only harms the
efforts of those legitimately trying to alter drug policy in the United States.
Showing this film to anyone on the opposite side of the legalization issue isn't
going to produce a convert, but will likely only make their opinion more
stalwart in the face of such ridiculous material. Empty of statistics or
evidence, nothing seems intended by The War on the War on Drugs except to
get a bunch of people to yell, "Right on, man!" at their television
sets while dipping their hands into a giant bowl of Cheetos.

The War on the War on Drugs consists largely of material deliberately
altered to match the time period it is mocking, so it isn't easy to give the
video component a clear grade. For the most part the image is solid, with only
some minor artifacts in occasional spots. The audio mix is nothing to yell
about, but it gets the job done and will be easily heard over the background
noise of "Crosstown Traffic" while the average viewer looks on.

Extras consist of several deleted scenes, a trailer, and an audio commentary
by director Cevin Soling and producer Dan Cornfeld. The pair sound outgoing and
gregarious, and give an insider's view on their opinions and choices made for
the film. They sound like a couple of smart guys, so it's even more
disappointing that they couldn't come up with a better result. The deleted
scenes follow the same routine as the remaining footage, so it's merely more of
the same nonsense.